By William Fisher
The American Civil Liberties Union receives thousands of pages of FBI reports about prisoner abuse at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Documents from the Environmental Protection Agency reveal that months after the collapse of the World Trade Center, Ground Zero is contaminated with asbestos.
A newspaper in Ohio discloses the risks Peace Corps volunteers, especially women, face abroad from violence, accidents, disease and suicide.
An airliner crashes in the Florida Everglades, killing 110 people. A newspaper obtains documents showing what the government knew about safety problems at the airline.
What these revelations – and thousands of others -- have in common is that each was based on facts contained in government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which marks its 39th birthday this July 4th.
Such laws are unknown in the Middle East, where much of the media is owned or controlled by the state, and where public sector transparency is still very much the exception.
Sweden was the first country to have a Freedom of Information law, but similar laws are now in effect in virtually all advanced democracies.
But, in the United States, this is a law that almost didn’t happen.
During World War II, the U.S. government released little information to the press and public. After the war, the government continued many of its information restriction practices. Republican President Eisenhower presided over a period of unprecedented government secrecy, leading to a battle between the journalists and the Defense Department.
Congress established a committee to investigate. Its investigations found evidence of “blatant and arbitrary government secrecy”.
Congressional support for greater transparency in government gradually gained momentum and, by the mid-1950s, had turned freedom of information into an issue that was included in the 1956 Democratic Party platform.
Although the “paper curtain” had been revealed, Congress asked for little more than greater voluntary disclosure from federal agencies in its first actions to ensure freedom of information.
But the press argued for immediate legislation requiring the government to be more systematic and open on the issue of access to information. As a result, Congress amended older laws used by the government to justify withholding information, but failed to create a new law to guarantee a systematic release of information.
But that didn’t happen until 1966, when the legislature passed the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. On July 4th, President Johnson, despite his own objections, signed the bill into law.
Johnson signed the act on his Texas ranch, far from the nation’s capital, press conferences and television cameras. No one from the small band of legislators, lawyers and journalists who fought so hard for its enactment was on hand. The act had only one day to go before dying of presidential neglect in the form of a pocket veto.
This was hardly an auspicious beginning for a law that eventually spawned parallel "sunshine laws" in all 50 American states.
Yet the original 1966 law was little more than a symbolic bow in the direction
of government transparency. It did not contain a timeline for compliance with requests. It did not stipulate penalties for violation. No enforcement agency
oversaw agency transgressions. And the law failed to set limits on requestor fees.
These shortcomings were addressed in the amendments of 1974 and 1976, which were motivated by Ralph Nader’s activism and public objections to government secrecy in light of the Watergate scandal.
Today, virtually everyone sees FOIA as an essential check on unlimited government power.
Dr. Jack Behrman, former professor at the University of North Carolina Business School and Assistant Secretary of Commerce during the Kennedy Administration, sums up its value. He told IPS, “The FOIA is a necessary door-opener for the public to view events, policies, and negotiations of government as soon as practicable -- if not sooner. The watchdogs always need watchdogs, and the best final arbiter of relevance is the public itself.”
Efforts to strengthen FOIA are continuing, today by an unlikely partnership of one of the U.S. Senate’s most liberal members and one of its most conservative.
The odd couple is Senator John Cornyn, a conservative Republican from Texas and Senator Patrick Leahy, a liberal Democrat from Maine. Amid growing complaints about delays and difficulties in obtaining information from federal agencies, the pair has put together two bills.
One would create a commission to identify ways to reduce delays in processing FOIA requests. A second would establish a way for people to track their Freedom of Information Act requests on the Internet and would establish an ombudsman to mediate disputes between agencies and requesters.
Mark Dow, author of "American Gulag", a book describing the U.S. immigration prison system, has used FOIA widely and supports the ombudsman idea. He says, " Having an ombudsman to resolve disputes sounds like a very good idea, since otherwise the system is inherently biased." His own experience with the law is mixed: “Some of my FOIA requests to DOJ and INS have yielded important information; others have been rejected without explanation.” On balance, however, he believes “the FOIA system is an essential tool for monitoring our government employees”.
A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report notes that during the Bush Administration there has been a dramatic increase in Freedom of Information Act requests -- a 71 percent jump from 2002 to 2004; a 68 percent rise in requests processed during that period; and a 14 percent rise in the backlog. The report, examining requests processed in 2004, says 92 percent resulted in "responsive records" being provided in full. However, those seeking information often have to sue the government to get it.
Norman Solomon, Executive Director of the Institute for Public Accuracy and author of the new book, "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death", is not surprised. He says, “Secrecy is always part of the arsenal for domestic war propaganda. Lies for war come in many forms -- and no form is more crucial than the blockading of information. It's no coincidence that the current White House efforts to severely limit the utility of FOIA requests in the most "sensitive" cases is underway…Those who are eager to pursue war policies that can't stand the light of day are eager to keep those policies in dark shadows.”
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
WHERE IS THE CHRISTIAN LEFT?
By William Fisher
As prodigiously funded groups on the religious Right prepare to square off against the equally well-endowed but largely sectarian Left in a take-no-prisoners battle over President George W. Bush’s not-yet-nominated replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Conner, there are signs that a new progressive religious movement may be emerging.
Determined to reclaim the issue of faith from the Christian right, the new Christian Alliance for Progress (CAP) describes itself as a grass-roots organization with plans for a national membership. CAP’s core principles include commitments to economic justice, environmental stewardship, equality for homosexuals, effective prevention -- but not criminalization -- of abortion, peaceful solutions to international disputes, and universal health care for all Americans.
"For years, we've been hearing the name of Christianity be used to speak about hatred, division, war and greed," said Patrick Mrotek, the health management consultant who founded the group. He added, “"We believe we can no longer stand by and watch the language of our faith used in that manner, and we think it is time to reclaim our faith."
Supported by private donations, the group began organizing four months ago and has attracted 3,000 to 4,000 members so far, according to Kathleen LeRoy, vice president of operations. She also said "dozens of people" have agreed to head chapters of the Christian Alliance for Progress across the country.
According to its statement of purpose, "The Christian Alliance for Progress, founded firmly on the teachings of the Gospel, will stand for pursuing economic justice; responsible environmental stewardship; equality for gays and lesbians; honoring the sanctity of childbearing decisions through effective prevention, not criminalization of abortion; seeking peace, not war; and achieving health care for all Americans."
Its liberal stance on abortion mirrors the softer approach recently taken by some Democrats, such as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), that abortion, while not a good thing, is something that must be available but rare.
It also opens the possibility for progressive interfaith coalitions. Prof. Omid Safi, one of the co-founders of the Progressive Muslim Union (PMU), told IPS, “Their stances certainly mirror many of PMU’s, and I think groups like this should be working hand in hand.”
Safi is co-chair of the Study of Islam section at the American Academy of Religion, and a professor of philosophy and religion at Colgate University. PMU was launched in 2004.
Last week, the Alliance delivered what it calls "The Jacksonville Declaration" – an open letter to leaders of the religious right. The declaration was read in front of the First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida. The pastor of that church, Jerry Vines, made headlines in 2002 when he described the Prophet Muhammad as a "demon-possessed pedophile."
In the declaration, the group quotes a number of statements that members consider at odds with the spirit of tolerance and compassion in the Bible. For example, they cite a letter religious leader Bob Jones sent to President Bush after last year's election in which he said, "You owe liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ."
The declaration also quotes a statement made by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) in March in which he said, "I hope the Supreme Court will finally read the Constitution and see there's no such thing, or no mention of separation of church and state in the Constitution."
Says the Declaration: “We must tell you now that you do not speak for us, or for our politics. We say ‘No’ to the ways you are using the name and language of Christianity to advance what we see as extremist political goals. We do not support your agenda to erode the separation of church and state, to blur the vital distinction between your interpretation of Christianity and our shared democratic institutions. Moreover, we do not accept what seems to be your understanding of Christian values. We reject a Christianity co-opted by any government and used as a tool to ostracize, to subjugate, or to condone bigotry, greed and injustice.”
The Alliance was founded by Jacksonville, Florida, businessman Patrick Mrotek. The Reverend Timothy F. Simpson, a Presbyterian minister, is the group’s director of religious affairs
Rev. Simpson says “the Christian right, in the persons of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and James Dobson, has come to stand for bigotry, intolerance, and division”, and promises that his organization “will try to repair the damage done by the right’s insistence that the United States is a ‘Christian nation’ that ought to be governed according to their narrow interpretation of Scripture.”
“I understand that the truth can be spoken by Muslims, and the truth can be spoken by Jews. The truth can be spoken by atheists,” said Simpson, adding, “An atheist who stands for the interests of the neighbor, an atheist who stands for the interests of poor people at the margins, for the oppressed, is worth more than a hundred Christians who have made their bed with the fat cats, because that atheist is actually articulating the ends of the kingdom of God.”
CAP launched its Web site last month, and, with no advertising, has already attracted thousands of signatories to its “Jacksonville Declaration”. The group has also recruited community organizers in 20 cities across the country.
The new organization will also make common cause with other progressive Christian groups. Perhaps the best known of these is Soujourners, headed by Rev. Jim Wallis who, after working as an anti-poverty crusader and magazine editor for many years, made headlines in the 2004 presidential campaign by challenging the religious conservative monopoly. Wallis is the author of the best-selling book, "God's Politics".
Simpson said the group would attempt to emulate the religious right in at least one respect: organization. He said the CAP intends to “mobilize a field force of people who will respond to issues and make their voice heard from the perspective of the Christian left.”
But Simpson says he can call for more religion to influence politics while still advocating a clear separation between church and state.
As prodigiously funded groups on the religious Right prepare to square off against the equally well-endowed but largely sectarian Left in a take-no-prisoners battle over President George W. Bush’s not-yet-nominated replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Conner, there are signs that a new progressive religious movement may be emerging.
Determined to reclaim the issue of faith from the Christian right, the new Christian Alliance for Progress (CAP) describes itself as a grass-roots organization with plans for a national membership. CAP’s core principles include commitments to economic justice, environmental stewardship, equality for homosexuals, effective prevention -- but not criminalization -- of abortion, peaceful solutions to international disputes, and universal health care for all Americans.
"For years, we've been hearing the name of Christianity be used to speak about hatred, division, war and greed," said Patrick Mrotek, the health management consultant who founded the group. He added, “"We believe we can no longer stand by and watch the language of our faith used in that manner, and we think it is time to reclaim our faith."
Supported by private donations, the group began organizing four months ago and has attracted 3,000 to 4,000 members so far, according to Kathleen LeRoy, vice president of operations. She also said "dozens of people" have agreed to head chapters of the Christian Alliance for Progress across the country.
According to its statement of purpose, "The Christian Alliance for Progress, founded firmly on the teachings of the Gospel, will stand for pursuing economic justice; responsible environmental stewardship; equality for gays and lesbians; honoring the sanctity of childbearing decisions through effective prevention, not criminalization of abortion; seeking peace, not war; and achieving health care for all Americans."
Its liberal stance on abortion mirrors the softer approach recently taken by some Democrats, such as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), that abortion, while not a good thing, is something that must be available but rare.
It also opens the possibility for progressive interfaith coalitions. Prof. Omid Safi, one of the co-founders of the Progressive Muslim Union (PMU), told IPS, “Their stances certainly mirror many of PMU’s, and I think groups like this should be working hand in hand.”
Safi is co-chair of the Study of Islam section at the American Academy of Religion, and a professor of philosophy and religion at Colgate University. PMU was launched in 2004.
Last week, the Alliance delivered what it calls "The Jacksonville Declaration" – an open letter to leaders of the religious right. The declaration was read in front of the First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida. The pastor of that church, Jerry Vines, made headlines in 2002 when he described the Prophet Muhammad as a "demon-possessed pedophile."
In the declaration, the group quotes a number of statements that members consider at odds with the spirit of tolerance and compassion in the Bible. For example, they cite a letter religious leader Bob Jones sent to President Bush after last year's election in which he said, "You owe liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ."
The declaration also quotes a statement made by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) in March in which he said, "I hope the Supreme Court will finally read the Constitution and see there's no such thing, or no mention of separation of church and state in the Constitution."
Says the Declaration: “We must tell you now that you do not speak for us, or for our politics. We say ‘No’ to the ways you are using the name and language of Christianity to advance what we see as extremist political goals. We do not support your agenda to erode the separation of church and state, to blur the vital distinction between your interpretation of Christianity and our shared democratic institutions. Moreover, we do not accept what seems to be your understanding of Christian values. We reject a Christianity co-opted by any government and used as a tool to ostracize, to subjugate, or to condone bigotry, greed and injustice.”
The Alliance was founded by Jacksonville, Florida, businessman Patrick Mrotek. The Reverend Timothy F. Simpson, a Presbyterian minister, is the group’s director of religious affairs
Rev. Simpson says “the Christian right, in the persons of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and James Dobson, has come to stand for bigotry, intolerance, and division”, and promises that his organization “will try to repair the damage done by the right’s insistence that the United States is a ‘Christian nation’ that ought to be governed according to their narrow interpretation of Scripture.”
“I understand that the truth can be spoken by Muslims, and the truth can be spoken by Jews. The truth can be spoken by atheists,” said Simpson, adding, “An atheist who stands for the interests of the neighbor, an atheist who stands for the interests of poor people at the margins, for the oppressed, is worth more than a hundred Christians who have made their bed with the fat cats, because that atheist is actually articulating the ends of the kingdom of God.”
CAP launched its Web site last month, and, with no advertising, has already attracted thousands of signatories to its “Jacksonville Declaration”. The group has also recruited community organizers in 20 cities across the country.
The new organization will also make common cause with other progressive Christian groups. Perhaps the best known of these is Soujourners, headed by Rev. Jim Wallis who, after working as an anti-poverty crusader and magazine editor for many years, made headlines in the 2004 presidential campaign by challenging the religious conservative monopoly. Wallis is the author of the best-selling book, "God's Politics".
Simpson said the group would attempt to emulate the religious right in at least one respect: organization. He said the CAP intends to “mobilize a field force of people who will respond to issues and make their voice heard from the perspective of the Christian left.”
But Simpson says he can call for more religion to influence politics while still advocating a clear separation between church and state.
CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR
By William Fisher
Though it happened just over 20 years ago, today’s media has all but forgotten that Afghanistan’s Taliban was largely the creation of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) and a hard-drinking, party-loving Texas congressman who helped funnel billions of dollars in arms to “freedom fighters” like Osama Bin Laden and Mulla Mohammad Omar.
The congressman was Charles Wilson, a colorful and powerful Democrat from the East Texas Bible Belt. During the 1980s, Wilson was a member of a congressional appropriations subcommittee. From that position of power he funneled billions of dollars in secret funding to the C.I.A., which used the money to purchase weapons to help the Mujahedeen drive the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan.
In those days, the Mujahedeen were viewed by the U.S. as “freedom fighters”, and were so-named by President Ronald Reagan, who praised them for “defending principles of independence and freedom that form the basis of global security and stability.”
In that Cold War environment, chasing the Russians out of the country trumped all other considerations. Among the weapons funded by Congress were hundreds of Stinger missile systems that Mujahedeen forces used to counter the Russians' lethal Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunships. And there were also tens of thousands of automatic weapons, antitank guns, satellite intelligence maps. According to Crile, Wilson brought his own belly dancer from Texas to Cairo to entertain the Egyptian defense minister, who was secretly supplying the Mujahedeen with millions of rounds of ammunition for the AK-47's the C.I.A. was smuggling into Afghanistan.
From a few million dollars in the early 1980's, support for the resistance grew to about $750 million a year by the end of the decade. Decisions were made in secret by Wilson and other lawmakers on the appropriations committee. To help make his case, Wilson exploited one of the decade's scandals, the Iran-contra affair, arguing that Democrats who were voting to cut off funding for the contras in Nicaragua could demonstrate their willingness to stand up to the Soviet empire by approving more money for the Afghan fighters.
Many Muslims from other countries volunteered to assist various Mujahedeen
groups in Afghanistan, and gained significant experience in guerrilla warfare.
Some of these veterans have been significant factors in more recent conflicts in and around the Muslim world.
The effort was successful. On Feb. 15, 1989, Gen. Boris Gromov, commander of the Soviets' 40th Army, walked across Friendship Bridge as the last Russian to leave Afghanistan. The C.I.A. cable from the Islamabad station to the agency’s headquarters said, ''We won.'' Wilson's own note said simply, ''We did it.''
Pakistan's then president, Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, who had allowed the weapons to move through his country on C.I.A.-purchased mules, credited Wilson with the defeat of the Russians in Afghanistan. ''Charlie did it, '' he said
Thus, the largest covert operation in the C.I.A. history ended with Russia’s humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan.
But, in a new book – “Charlie Wilson’s War” by George Crile -- the American-financed war against the Soviets in Afghanistan also helped create the political vacuum that was filled by the Taliban and Islamic extremists, who turned their deadly terrorism against the United States on September 11, 2001.
After the Soviet withdrawal, the C.I.A. tried to buy back the weapons they had supplied, but were largely unsuccessful.
Until Wilson’s retirement from the House in 1996, he enjoyed a reputation as a relentless womanizer, perpetual partier, borderline drunk, and general roué.
But Wilson's questionable reputation proved to be a brilliant cover for his passionate anti-Communism. He was also an ambitious politician, perfectly willing to vote for military contracts in his colleagues' districts in return for votes to support the Mujahedeen.
When the Soviet Union pulled its troops out, however, the Mujahedeen did not establish a united government; its members broke into two loosely-aligned opposing factions, the Northern Alliance and a radical splinter group known as the Taliban. In the ensuing civil war for control of the country, the Mujahedeen was ousted from power by the Taliban in 1996.
The Mujahedeen regrouped as the Northern Alliance and in 2001 with U.S. and international military aid, ousted the Taliban from power and formed a new government.
A wealthy Saudi named Osama bin Laden was a prominent Mujahedeen organizer and financier; his Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK) (Office of Services) funneled money, arms, and Muslim fighters from around the world into Afghanistan, with the assistance and support of the American, Pakistani, and Saudi governments. Bin Laden broke away from the MAK in 1988, and the rest, as they say, is history.
In the U.S. invasion of the country following 9/11, the brutal Taliban theocracy was effectively defeated – or at least dispersed. But its remnants nevertheless continue to battle the U.S. and its Coalition partners, and spell trouble for the fragile government of American-backed President Hamid Karzai, which is struggling to deal with the fragmented, warlord-based nature of Afghan society and the devastation of years of war and deprivation.
In the 1980s, opposition to the Soviet Union and communism was virtually universal among Americans. But the Wilson story is a perfect illustration of good intentions resulting in bad consequences. Wilson's War succeeded in arming the very people responsible for the terrorist attacks in the U.S. on September 11th, 2001, and who ended up shooting at U.S. and Coalition troops.
Professor Abdullahi An-Na'im of Emory University Law School told IPS, “Good intentions are not good enough, and we should always be humble and accept the possibility of being wrong. The lesson of the law of 'unintended consequences' of our previous policies is to realize in our current policies that ends never justify the means. Pragmatic reasons for any policy must always be consistent with moral rationale. If bad means appear to achieved good ends in the short term, then it is simply that we have failed to appreciate the real costs which in fact outweigh the presumed benefits."
Though it happened just over 20 years ago, today’s media has all but forgotten that Afghanistan’s Taliban was largely the creation of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) and a hard-drinking, party-loving Texas congressman who helped funnel billions of dollars in arms to “freedom fighters” like Osama Bin Laden and Mulla Mohammad Omar.
The congressman was Charles Wilson, a colorful and powerful Democrat from the East Texas Bible Belt. During the 1980s, Wilson was a member of a congressional appropriations subcommittee. From that position of power he funneled billions of dollars in secret funding to the C.I.A., which used the money to purchase weapons to help the Mujahedeen drive the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan.
In those days, the Mujahedeen were viewed by the U.S. as “freedom fighters”, and were so-named by President Ronald Reagan, who praised them for “defending principles of independence and freedom that form the basis of global security and stability.”
In that Cold War environment, chasing the Russians out of the country trumped all other considerations. Among the weapons funded by Congress were hundreds of Stinger missile systems that Mujahedeen forces used to counter the Russians' lethal Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunships. And there were also tens of thousands of automatic weapons, antitank guns, satellite intelligence maps. According to Crile, Wilson brought his own belly dancer from Texas to Cairo to entertain the Egyptian defense minister, who was secretly supplying the Mujahedeen with millions of rounds of ammunition for the AK-47's the C.I.A. was smuggling into Afghanistan.
From a few million dollars in the early 1980's, support for the resistance grew to about $750 million a year by the end of the decade. Decisions were made in secret by Wilson and other lawmakers on the appropriations committee. To help make his case, Wilson exploited one of the decade's scandals, the Iran-contra affair, arguing that Democrats who were voting to cut off funding for the contras in Nicaragua could demonstrate their willingness to stand up to the Soviet empire by approving more money for the Afghan fighters.
Many Muslims from other countries volunteered to assist various Mujahedeen
groups in Afghanistan, and gained significant experience in guerrilla warfare.
Some of these veterans have been significant factors in more recent conflicts in and around the Muslim world.
The effort was successful. On Feb. 15, 1989, Gen. Boris Gromov, commander of the Soviets' 40th Army, walked across Friendship Bridge as the last Russian to leave Afghanistan. The C.I.A. cable from the Islamabad station to the agency’s headquarters said, ''We won.'' Wilson's own note said simply, ''We did it.''
Pakistan's then president, Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, who had allowed the weapons to move through his country on C.I.A.-purchased mules, credited Wilson with the defeat of the Russians in Afghanistan. ''Charlie did it, '' he said
Thus, the largest covert operation in the C.I.A. history ended with Russia’s humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan.
But, in a new book – “Charlie Wilson’s War” by George Crile -- the American-financed war against the Soviets in Afghanistan also helped create the political vacuum that was filled by the Taliban and Islamic extremists, who turned their deadly terrorism against the United States on September 11, 2001.
After the Soviet withdrawal, the C.I.A. tried to buy back the weapons they had supplied, but were largely unsuccessful.
Until Wilson’s retirement from the House in 1996, he enjoyed a reputation as a relentless womanizer, perpetual partier, borderline drunk, and general roué.
But Wilson's questionable reputation proved to be a brilliant cover for his passionate anti-Communism. He was also an ambitious politician, perfectly willing to vote for military contracts in his colleagues' districts in return for votes to support the Mujahedeen.
When the Soviet Union pulled its troops out, however, the Mujahedeen did not establish a united government; its members broke into two loosely-aligned opposing factions, the Northern Alliance and a radical splinter group known as the Taliban. In the ensuing civil war for control of the country, the Mujahedeen was ousted from power by the Taliban in 1996.
The Mujahedeen regrouped as the Northern Alliance and in 2001 with U.S. and international military aid, ousted the Taliban from power and formed a new government.
A wealthy Saudi named Osama bin Laden was a prominent Mujahedeen organizer and financier; his Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK) (Office of Services) funneled money, arms, and Muslim fighters from around the world into Afghanistan, with the assistance and support of the American, Pakistani, and Saudi governments. Bin Laden broke away from the MAK in 1988, and the rest, as they say, is history.
In the U.S. invasion of the country following 9/11, the brutal Taliban theocracy was effectively defeated – or at least dispersed. But its remnants nevertheless continue to battle the U.S. and its Coalition partners, and spell trouble for the fragile government of American-backed President Hamid Karzai, which is struggling to deal with the fragmented, warlord-based nature of Afghan society and the devastation of years of war and deprivation.
In the 1980s, opposition to the Soviet Union and communism was virtually universal among Americans. But the Wilson story is a perfect illustration of good intentions resulting in bad consequences. Wilson's War succeeded in arming the very people responsible for the terrorist attacks in the U.S. on September 11th, 2001, and who ended up shooting at U.S. and Coalition troops.
Professor Abdullahi An-Na'im of Emory University Law School told IPS, “Good intentions are not good enough, and we should always be humble and accept the possibility of being wrong. The lesson of the law of 'unintended consequences' of our previous policies is to realize in our current policies that ends never justify the means. Pragmatic reasons for any policy must always be consistent with moral rationale. If bad means appear to achieved good ends in the short term, then it is simply that we have failed to appreciate the real costs which in fact outweigh the presumed benefits."
I Wrote Bush's War Words -- in 1965
By Daniel Ellsberg
Daniel Ellsberg worked in the State and Defense departments under Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. He released the Pentagon Papers to the press in 1971.
President Bush's explanation Tuesday night for staying the course in Iraq evoked in me a sense of familiarity, but not nostalgia. I had heard virtually all of his themes before, almost word for word, in speeches delivered by three presidents I worked for: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. Not with pride, I recognized that I had proposed some of those very words myself.
Drafting a speech on the Vietnam War for Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara in July 1965, I had the same task as Bush's speechwriters in June 2005: how to rationalize and motivate continued public support for a hopelessly stalemated, unnecessary war our president had lied us into.
Looking back on my draft, I find I used the word "terrorist" about our adversaries to the same effect Bush did.
Like Bush's advisors, I felt the need for a global threat to explain the scale of effort we faced. For that role, I felt China was better suited as our "real" adversary than North Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh, just as Bush prefers to focus on Al Qaeda rather than Iraqi nationalists. "They are trying to shake our will in Iraq — just as they [sic] tried to shake our will on Sept. 11, 2001," he said.
My draft was approved by McNamara, national security advisor McGeorge Bundy and Secretary of State Dean Rusk, but it was not delivered because it was a clarion call for mobilizing the Reserves to support an open-ended escalation of troops, as Johnson's military commanders had urged.
LBJ preferred instead to lie at a news conference about the number of troops they had requested for immediate deployment (twice the level he announced), and to conceal the total number they believed necessary for success, which was at least 500,000. (I take with a grain of salt Bush's claim that "our commanders tell me they have the number of troops they need to do their job.")
A note particularly reminiscent in Bush's speech was his reference to "a time of testing." "We have more work to do, and there will be tough moments that test America's resolve," he said.
This theme recalled a passage in my 1965 draft that, for reasons that will be evident, I have never chosen to reproduce before. I ended by painting a picture of communist China as "an opponent that views international politics as a whole as a vast guerrilla struggle … intimidating, ambushing, demoralizing and weakening those who would uphold an alternative world order."
"We are being tested," I wrote. "Have we the guts, the grit, the determination to stick with a frustrating, bloody, difficult course as long as it takes to see it through….? The Asian communists are sure that we have not." Tuesday, Bush said: Our adversaries "believe that free societies are essentially corrupt and decadent, and with a few hard blows they can force us to retreat."
His speechwriters, like me, then faced this question from the other side. To meet the enemy's test of resolve, how long must the American public support troops as they kill and die in a foreign land? Their answer came in the same workmanlike evasions that served Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon: "as long as we are needed (and not a day longer) … until the fight is won."
I can scarcely bear to reread my own proposed response in 1965 to that question, which drew on a famous riposte by the late U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson during the Cuban missile crisis:
"There is only one answer for us to give. It was made … by an American statesman … in the midst of another crisis that tested our resolution. Till hell freezes over."
It doesn't feel any better to hear similar words from another president 40 years on, nor will they read any better to his speechwriters years from now. But the human pain they foretell will not be mainly theirs.
Daniel Ellsberg worked in the State and Defense departments under Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. He released the Pentagon Papers to the press in 1971.
President Bush's explanation Tuesday night for staying the course in Iraq evoked in me a sense of familiarity, but not nostalgia. I had heard virtually all of his themes before, almost word for word, in speeches delivered by three presidents I worked for: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. Not with pride, I recognized that I had proposed some of those very words myself.
Drafting a speech on the Vietnam War for Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara in July 1965, I had the same task as Bush's speechwriters in June 2005: how to rationalize and motivate continued public support for a hopelessly stalemated, unnecessary war our president had lied us into.
Looking back on my draft, I find I used the word "terrorist" about our adversaries to the same effect Bush did.
Like Bush's advisors, I felt the need for a global threat to explain the scale of effort we faced. For that role, I felt China was better suited as our "real" adversary than North Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh, just as Bush prefers to focus on Al Qaeda rather than Iraqi nationalists. "They are trying to shake our will in Iraq — just as they [sic] tried to shake our will on Sept. 11, 2001," he said.
My draft was approved by McNamara, national security advisor McGeorge Bundy and Secretary of State Dean Rusk, but it was not delivered because it was a clarion call for mobilizing the Reserves to support an open-ended escalation of troops, as Johnson's military commanders had urged.
LBJ preferred instead to lie at a news conference about the number of troops they had requested for immediate deployment (twice the level he announced), and to conceal the total number they believed necessary for success, which was at least 500,000. (I take with a grain of salt Bush's claim that "our commanders tell me they have the number of troops they need to do their job.")
A note particularly reminiscent in Bush's speech was his reference to "a time of testing." "We have more work to do, and there will be tough moments that test America's resolve," he said.
This theme recalled a passage in my 1965 draft that, for reasons that will be evident, I have never chosen to reproduce before. I ended by painting a picture of communist China as "an opponent that views international politics as a whole as a vast guerrilla struggle … intimidating, ambushing, demoralizing and weakening those who would uphold an alternative world order."
"We are being tested," I wrote. "Have we the guts, the grit, the determination to stick with a frustrating, bloody, difficult course as long as it takes to see it through….? The Asian communists are sure that we have not." Tuesday, Bush said: Our adversaries "believe that free societies are essentially corrupt and decadent, and with a few hard blows they can force us to retreat."
His speechwriters, like me, then faced this question from the other side. To meet the enemy's test of resolve, how long must the American public support troops as they kill and die in a foreign land? Their answer came in the same workmanlike evasions that served Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon: "as long as we are needed (and not a day longer) … until the fight is won."
I can scarcely bear to reread my own proposed response in 1965 to that question, which drew on a famous riposte by the late U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson during the Cuban missile crisis:
"There is only one answer for us to give. It was made … by an American statesman … in the midst of another crisis that tested our resolution. Till hell freezes over."
It doesn't feel any better to hear similar words from another president 40 years on, nor will they read any better to his speechwriters years from now. But the human pain they foretell will not be mainly theirs.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
HOPING FOR A MIRACLE
By William Fisher
This weekend, one of Latina Magazine's top 10 women of the year will enjoy a place of honor by riding in the lead float in the Jefferson City, Missouri, Fourth of July parade.
The next day – unless something dramatic and unexpected happens –19-year old Marie Gonzales and her parents will be deported from the U.S.
Marie is an honor student, a track star and a spokesperson for a national campaign to help immigrant students. She is known in her community as "brilliant," "a superstar," "magical."
Marie came to the U.S. with her parents, Marvin and Marina, when she was five. Her native Costa Rica is all but unknown to her.
The Gonzales family came to America on visitor's visas. According to Tolerance.org, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an advocacy group, “a lawyer told them that as long as they played by the rules, they could apply for permanent resident status after seven years.”
Tolerance.org. said the family opened a restaurant and bought a house. They were active in their church and became community leaders, volunteering for Habitat for Humanity and the community blood bank.
But changes in immigration laws – and attitudes toward immigrants – turned their lives upside down. The law that would have allowed them to become permanent residents was repealed in 1997. In November 2001, a second lawyer advised the family to wait until the anti-immigrant furor caused by the September 11th terrorist attacks had subsided.
It didn’t and, in 2002, someone contacted Marvin's employer, former Missouri Gov. Bob Holden — for whom he worked as a mail courier during the anthrax scare — and suggested they investigate the family's immigration status.
"When they looked, they saw that our visas expired in 2001," Marie said. Because they had valid Social Security numbers, Marie says it was the first time her family realized they were undocumented. The deportation notice arrived in the mail soon after.
Last May, Marie graduated from Helias High School, with honors and with dreams of going to law school. But as an undocumented student, she wasn't eligible for in-state tuition or financial aid.
Marie and her parents are among the almost 10 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. A steady drumbeat of anti-immigrant sentiment — from the Minuteman Project to the elected officials who want to close U.S. borders — has created a backlash against people like the Gonzalez family.
But in Jefferson City, residents are bucking the trend.
"They have become vital members of our community," said local business owner Ed Stroesser. "They give more to the community than most folks in this town."
Stroesser belongs to the Gonzalez Group, nurses, teachers, homemakers, businesspeople, state employees and a priest — about 40 members strong — who are fighting to stop the family's deportation.
Since forming in January, they have researched and rallied themselves into a grassroots machine, pumping out petitions, phone calls and faxes, talking with any reporter who will listen, organizing marches to the state capitol.
Marie has spoken at rallies, testified before the Missouri legislature and become a spokesperson for the DREAM Act, federal legislation that would help some undocumented students attend college and gain legal status.
"Hopefully I've changed a few people's minds," she says, "so they can see that immigrants can be great people."
The family has won city and county resolutions, asking Missouri's Congressional delegation to step in and do something. "They are de facto citizens," mayor John Landwehr wrote in a February letter to then-Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge. "The only thing missing is the stroke of a pen."
But beyond receiving a 30-day extension of their stay in the U.S., nothing has helped. They have visited with representatives of Missouri’s senators, Kit Bond and Jim Talent, both Republicans. The senators, who did not immediately return phone calls from IPS, have declined to introduce legislation on behalf of the Gonzales family, and have reportedly called the case "compelling ... but not unique."
But, Maria told IPS that Sen. Bond today (Thursday) telephoned the DHS, and was told the Gonzales case is “under review”.
Congressman Ike Skelton, Missouri Democrat, has previously contacted the DHS during one of Marie’s Washington visits last week, but officials there said they were unable to help.
Now the family is urging either of their senators to introduce a private bill that would allow the family to remain in the U.S. Long-term, their hope was that comprehensive immigration legislation would pass quickly enough to allow them to stay, but this is unlikely to happen. The DREAM Act was introduced by Senator Orren Hatch, Republican of Utah, and Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, in the last session of congress, and must be re-introduced in the current session. Senators John McCain and Ted Kennedy have also introduced comprehensive immigration legislation in the current session.
“It's one of those things where I can't imagine what it will be like," Marie tells Tolerance.org. "We have been fighting for this not to go through, but none of the laws that exist right now will help my family. We've worked hard, we pay our taxes and we love this country. But none of that matters."
Carlos Vogel, Director of Communications for Community Change, a Washington, DC-based advocacy group that has been working with the Gonzales family, told IPS, “Each year, more than 65,000 high school graduates are deported from the United States. Many of them dream of going on to college, but are not eligible for in-state tuition or financial aid. Our country is being short-sighted because these people are valuable human assets and should be encouraged, not deported.”
Today (Thursday), the family led an "immigration awareness rally" in the capitol rotunda in Jefferson City with local leaders. After the Fourth of July parade will come the flight to Costa Rica.
Reached today at the Jefferson City office of Senator Bond, Maria Gonzales told IPS, “I love this country. I belong here. It’s the only country I’ve ever known. And I have not given up hope. We still have five days. Maybe a miracle will happen.”
This weekend, one of Latina Magazine's top 10 women of the year will enjoy a place of honor by riding in the lead float in the Jefferson City, Missouri, Fourth of July parade.
The next day – unless something dramatic and unexpected happens –19-year old Marie Gonzales and her parents will be deported from the U.S.
Marie is an honor student, a track star and a spokesperson for a national campaign to help immigrant students. She is known in her community as "brilliant," "a superstar," "magical."
Marie came to the U.S. with her parents, Marvin and Marina, when she was five. Her native Costa Rica is all but unknown to her.
The Gonzales family came to America on visitor's visas. According to Tolerance.org, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an advocacy group, “a lawyer told them that as long as they played by the rules, they could apply for permanent resident status after seven years.”
Tolerance.org. said the family opened a restaurant and bought a house. They were active in their church and became community leaders, volunteering for Habitat for Humanity and the community blood bank.
But changes in immigration laws – and attitudes toward immigrants – turned their lives upside down. The law that would have allowed them to become permanent residents was repealed in 1997. In November 2001, a second lawyer advised the family to wait until the anti-immigrant furor caused by the September 11th terrorist attacks had subsided.
It didn’t and, in 2002, someone contacted Marvin's employer, former Missouri Gov. Bob Holden — for whom he worked as a mail courier during the anthrax scare — and suggested they investigate the family's immigration status.
"When they looked, they saw that our visas expired in 2001," Marie said. Because they had valid Social Security numbers, Marie says it was the first time her family realized they were undocumented. The deportation notice arrived in the mail soon after.
Last May, Marie graduated from Helias High School, with honors and with dreams of going to law school. But as an undocumented student, she wasn't eligible for in-state tuition or financial aid.
Marie and her parents are among the almost 10 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. A steady drumbeat of anti-immigrant sentiment — from the Minuteman Project to the elected officials who want to close U.S. borders — has created a backlash against people like the Gonzalez family.
But in Jefferson City, residents are bucking the trend.
"They have become vital members of our community," said local business owner Ed Stroesser. "They give more to the community than most folks in this town."
Stroesser belongs to the Gonzalez Group, nurses, teachers, homemakers, businesspeople, state employees and a priest — about 40 members strong — who are fighting to stop the family's deportation.
Since forming in January, they have researched and rallied themselves into a grassroots machine, pumping out petitions, phone calls and faxes, talking with any reporter who will listen, organizing marches to the state capitol.
Marie has spoken at rallies, testified before the Missouri legislature and become a spokesperson for the DREAM Act, federal legislation that would help some undocumented students attend college and gain legal status.
"Hopefully I've changed a few people's minds," she says, "so they can see that immigrants can be great people."
The family has won city and county resolutions, asking Missouri's Congressional delegation to step in and do something. "They are de facto citizens," mayor John Landwehr wrote in a February letter to then-Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge. "The only thing missing is the stroke of a pen."
But beyond receiving a 30-day extension of their stay in the U.S., nothing has helped. They have visited with representatives of Missouri’s senators, Kit Bond and Jim Talent, both Republicans. The senators, who did not immediately return phone calls from IPS, have declined to introduce legislation on behalf of the Gonzales family, and have reportedly called the case "compelling ... but not unique."
But, Maria told IPS that Sen. Bond today (Thursday) telephoned the DHS, and was told the Gonzales case is “under review”.
Congressman Ike Skelton, Missouri Democrat, has previously contacted the DHS during one of Marie’s Washington visits last week, but officials there said they were unable to help.
Now the family is urging either of their senators to introduce a private bill that would allow the family to remain in the U.S. Long-term, their hope was that comprehensive immigration legislation would pass quickly enough to allow them to stay, but this is unlikely to happen. The DREAM Act was introduced by Senator Orren Hatch, Republican of Utah, and Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, in the last session of congress, and must be re-introduced in the current session. Senators John McCain and Ted Kennedy have also introduced comprehensive immigration legislation in the current session.
“It's one of those things where I can't imagine what it will be like," Marie tells Tolerance.org. "We have been fighting for this not to go through, but none of the laws that exist right now will help my family. We've worked hard, we pay our taxes and we love this country. But none of that matters."
Carlos Vogel, Director of Communications for Community Change, a Washington, DC-based advocacy group that has been working with the Gonzales family, told IPS, “Each year, more than 65,000 high school graduates are deported from the United States. Many of them dream of going on to college, but are not eligible for in-state tuition or financial aid. Our country is being short-sighted because these people are valuable human assets and should be encouraged, not deported.”
Today (Thursday), the family led an "immigration awareness rally" in the capitol rotunda in Jefferson City with local leaders. After the Fourth of July parade will come the flight to Costa Rica.
Reached today at the Jefferson City office of Senator Bond, Maria Gonzales told IPS, “I love this country. I belong here. It’s the only country I’ve ever known. And I have not given up hope. We still have five days. Maybe a miracle will happen.”
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
BUSH WAS WARNED BY GENERALS NOT TO "STAY THE COURSE"
Grace Reid, a Boston-born anti-war and human rights activist, lives in Ireland.
By Grace Reid
We found the smoking bullet in the smoking gun of the Downing Street Memos, that being the massive pre-war bombing campaign intended to provoke Saddam into war. Now here is the “massive intelligence failure." Bush and Rumsfeld had the intelligence and it came from the Pentagon. But they failed to read it, and they failed to understand it. George Bush himself is the “massive intelligence failure.”
This following is one you can bank on. It is the Pentagon's own Defence Science Board Report Strategic Communications, December 2004.
Some excerpts:
From the Defence Science Board report to the Pentagon, November, 2004:
The Pentagon has admitted that the war on terror and the invasion and occupation of Iraq have increased support for al-Qaeda, made ordinary Muslims hate the US and caused a global backlash against America because of the "self-serving hypocrisy" of George W Bush's administration over the Middle East.
On "the war of ideas or the struggle for hearts and minds", the report says, "American efforts have not only failed, they may also have achieved the opposite of what they intended".
"American direct intervention in the Muslim world has paradoxically elevated the stature of, and support for, radical Islamists, while diminishing support for the United States to single digits in some Arab societies."
"Thus when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy. Moreover, saying that 'freedom is the future of the Middle East' is seen as patronising ... in the eyes of Muslims, the American occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq has not led to democracy there, but only more chaos and suffering. "American actions have elevated the authority of the jihadi insurgents and tended to ratify their legitimacy among Muslims." The result is that al-Qaeda has gone from being a marginal movement to having support across the entire Muslim world.
"We face a war on terrorism," the report says, "intensified conflict with Islam, and insurgency in Iraq. Worldwide anger and discontent are directed at America's tarnished credibility and ways the US pursues its goals. There is a consensus that America's power to persuade is in a state of crisis." More than 90% of the populations of some Muslims countries, such as Saudi Arabia, are opposed to US policies.
"The war has increased mistrust of America in Europe," the report adds, "weakened support for the war on terrorism and undermined US credibility worldwide." This, in turn, poses an increased threat to US national security.
America's "image problem", the report authors suggest, is "linked to perceptions of the US as arrogant, hypocritical and self-indulgent". The White House "has paid little attention" to the problems.
"Thus the US has strongly taken sides in a desperate struggle ... US policies and actions are increasingly seen by the overwhelming majority of Muslims as a threat to the survival of Islam itself ... Americans have inserted themselves into this intra-Islamic struggle in ways that have made us an enemy to most Muslims.
"There is no yearning-to- be-liberated-by-the-US groundswell among Muslim societies ... The perception of intimate US support of tyrannies in the Muslim world is perhaps the critical vulnerability in American strategy. It strongly undercuts our message, while strongly promoting that of the enemy."
"Americans are convinced that the US is a benevolent 'superpower' that elevates values emphasising freedom ... deep down we assume that everyone should naturally support our policies. Yet the world of Islam - by overwhelming majorities at this time - sees things differently. Muslims see American policies as inimical to their values, American rhetoric about freedom and democracy as hypocritical and American actions as deeply threatening.
"In two years the jihadi message - that strongly attacks American values - is being accepted by more moderate and non-violent Muslims. This in turn implies that negative opinion of the US has not yet bottomed out.
FOR LOADS MORE SEE:
DEFENCE SCIENCE BOARD SITE
Urgent Appeal From The People of Fallujah:
Urgent appeal from the people in Fallujah to the Secretary General of the U.N. calling for help to end the bombardment and prevent the threatened assault 14th October 2004
"Your Excellency, It is obvious that the American forces are committing crimes of genocide every day in Iraq .Now while we are writing to Your Excellency , the American warplanes are dropping their most powerful bombs on the civilians in the city , killing and injuring hundreds of innocent people . At the same time their tanks are attacking the city with their heavy artillery..." "On the night of 13th October alone American bombardment demolished 50 houses on top of their residents. Is this a genocidal crime or a lesson about democracy? It is obvious that the Americans are committing acts of terror against the people of Fallujah for one reason only : their refusal to accept the Occupation." FALLUJA URGENT APPEAL
World Tribunal on Iraq
War is a fundamental collapse of human reason and failure of imagination, and should always be an absolute last resort undertaken only in strict adherence with the charter of the United Nations. The current war and occupation of Iraq were undertaken in disregard of the most fundamental principles of international law and with obvious contempt for truth, posterity, and the morality which should guide all human actions. The result has been the occupation and colonization of Iraq and the destruction of its economy and increased violence and insecurity for the overwhelming majority of the Iraqi population. The world cannot sit by passively and watch the continued deterioration of the future of our planet. (World Tribunal on Iraq
New York Session, May 8, 2004)
Al Gore:
“Democracy Itself is in Grave Danger”
The last time we had a president who had the idea that he was above the law was when Richard Nixon told an interviewer, "When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal... If the president, for example approves something, approves an action because of national security, or, in this case, because of a threat to internal peace and order, of significant order, then the president's decision in this instance is one that enables those who carry it out to carry it out without violating the law."
Al Gore, addressing the American Constitution Society, Georgetown University Law Center, June 24, 2004
CCR's Olshansky:
"The Bush administration's utter lack of respect for a ruling of the Supreme Court is shocking, and reveals a deep lack of faith in the integrity of this country's own democratic institutions," remarked Barbara Olshansky, Center for Constitutional Right's Deputy Director for Litigation. "How can we light the way to democracy for other countries when our Executive Branch officials themselves flaunt the law?" Center for Constitutional Rights 11/29/04
Here's Marie From Newsday:
No American president should have the absolute power to imprison people at will, even when the nation is at war.
That's the unfettered power President George W. Bush has claimed for himself in the war on terrorism. On his authority alone -- unchecked by courts or international convention -- 550 people from 40 nations captured in the Afghanistan war have been locked in a U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for three years. Two others -- American citizens -- have been held in military brigs almost as long, without criminal charges or access to family, lawyers or court.
Bush has labelled them "enemy combatants." With those two words, the president says he can lawfully move anyone he chooses beyond the reach of any legal authority other than his own. -- Newsday, Marie Cocco 11/16/04
And finally, this:
We are losing the war in Iraq.
There has been a steady increase in the assaults carried out by the insurgents against coalition forces. The attacks over the past year have risen from about twenty a day to approximately 120. We are an isolated and reviled nation. We are tyrants to others weaker than ourselves. We have lost sight of our democratic ideals. Thucydides wrote of Athens' expanding empire and how this empire led it to become a tyrant abroad and then a tyrant at home. The tyranny Athens imposed on others it finally imposed on itself. If we do not confront our hubris and the lies told to justify the killing and mask the destruction carried out in our name in Iraq, if we do not grasp the moral corrosiveness of empire and occupation, if we continue to allow force and violence to be our primary form of communication, we will not so much defeat dictators like Saddam Hussein as become them. Chris Hedges, New York Review of Books--Issue December 16, 2004)
Our Fearless Leader:
Text of Bush's news conference Dec 20, 2004:
"You know, I can understand why people - they're looking on your TV screen and seeing indiscriminate bombing, where thousands of innocent or hundreds of innocent Iraqis are getting killed, and they're saying whether or not we're able to achieve the objective."
"Change the channel"
- Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt's advice to Iraqis who see TV images of innocent civilians killed by coalition troops.
(NYT 12th April 2004)
By Grace Reid
We found the smoking bullet in the smoking gun of the Downing Street Memos, that being the massive pre-war bombing campaign intended to provoke Saddam into war. Now here is the “massive intelligence failure." Bush and Rumsfeld had the intelligence and it came from the Pentagon. But they failed to read it, and they failed to understand it. George Bush himself is the “massive intelligence failure.”
This following is one you can bank on. It is the Pentagon's own Defence Science Board Report Strategic Communications, December 2004.
Some excerpts:
From the Defence Science Board report to the Pentagon, November, 2004:
The Pentagon has admitted that the war on terror and the invasion and occupation of Iraq have increased support for al-Qaeda, made ordinary Muslims hate the US and caused a global backlash against America because of the "self-serving hypocrisy" of George W Bush's administration over the Middle East.
On "the war of ideas or the struggle for hearts and minds", the report says, "American efforts have not only failed, they may also have achieved the opposite of what they intended".
"American direct intervention in the Muslim world has paradoxically elevated the stature of, and support for, radical Islamists, while diminishing support for the United States to single digits in some Arab societies."
"Thus when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy. Moreover, saying that 'freedom is the future of the Middle East' is seen as patronising ... in the eyes of Muslims, the American occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq has not led to democracy there, but only more chaos and suffering. "American actions have elevated the authority of the jihadi insurgents and tended to ratify their legitimacy among Muslims." The result is that al-Qaeda has gone from being a marginal movement to having support across the entire Muslim world.
"We face a war on terrorism," the report says, "intensified conflict with Islam, and insurgency in Iraq. Worldwide anger and discontent are directed at America's tarnished credibility and ways the US pursues its goals. There is a consensus that America's power to persuade is in a state of crisis." More than 90% of the populations of some Muslims countries, such as Saudi Arabia, are opposed to US policies.
"The war has increased mistrust of America in Europe," the report adds, "weakened support for the war on terrorism and undermined US credibility worldwide." This, in turn, poses an increased threat to US national security.
America's "image problem", the report authors suggest, is "linked to perceptions of the US as arrogant, hypocritical and self-indulgent". The White House "has paid little attention" to the problems.
"Thus the US has strongly taken sides in a desperate struggle ... US policies and actions are increasingly seen by the overwhelming majority of Muslims as a threat to the survival of Islam itself ... Americans have inserted themselves into this intra-Islamic struggle in ways that have made us an enemy to most Muslims.
"There is no yearning-to- be-liberated-by-the-US groundswell among Muslim societies ... The perception of intimate US support of tyrannies in the Muslim world is perhaps the critical vulnerability in American strategy. It strongly undercuts our message, while strongly promoting that of the enemy."
"Americans are convinced that the US is a benevolent 'superpower' that elevates values emphasising freedom ... deep down we assume that everyone should naturally support our policies. Yet the world of Islam - by overwhelming majorities at this time - sees things differently. Muslims see American policies as inimical to their values, American rhetoric about freedom and democracy as hypocritical and American actions as deeply threatening.
"In two years the jihadi message - that strongly attacks American values - is being accepted by more moderate and non-violent Muslims. This in turn implies that negative opinion of the US has not yet bottomed out.
FOR LOADS MORE SEE:
DEFENCE SCIENCE BOARD SITE
Urgent Appeal From The People of Fallujah:
Urgent appeal from the people in Fallujah to the Secretary General of the U.N. calling for help to end the bombardment and prevent the threatened assault 14th October 2004
"Your Excellency, It is obvious that the American forces are committing crimes of genocide every day in Iraq .Now while we are writing to Your Excellency , the American warplanes are dropping their most powerful bombs on the civilians in the city , killing and injuring hundreds of innocent people . At the same time their tanks are attacking the city with their heavy artillery..." "On the night of 13th October alone American bombardment demolished 50 houses on top of their residents. Is this a genocidal crime or a lesson about democracy? It is obvious that the Americans are committing acts of terror against the people of Fallujah for one reason only : their refusal to accept the Occupation." FALLUJA URGENT APPEAL
World Tribunal on Iraq
War is a fundamental collapse of human reason and failure of imagination, and should always be an absolute last resort undertaken only in strict adherence with the charter of the United Nations. The current war and occupation of Iraq were undertaken in disregard of the most fundamental principles of international law and with obvious contempt for truth, posterity, and the morality which should guide all human actions. The result has been the occupation and colonization of Iraq and the destruction of its economy and increased violence and insecurity for the overwhelming majority of the Iraqi population. The world cannot sit by passively and watch the continued deterioration of the future of our planet. (World Tribunal on Iraq
New York Session, May 8, 2004)
Al Gore:
“Democracy Itself is in Grave Danger”
The last time we had a president who had the idea that he was above the law was when Richard Nixon told an interviewer, "When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal... If the president, for example approves something, approves an action because of national security, or, in this case, because of a threat to internal peace and order, of significant order, then the president's decision in this instance is one that enables those who carry it out to carry it out without violating the law."
Al Gore, addressing the American Constitution Society, Georgetown University Law Center, June 24, 2004
CCR's Olshansky:
"The Bush administration's utter lack of respect for a ruling of the Supreme Court is shocking, and reveals a deep lack of faith in the integrity of this country's own democratic institutions," remarked Barbara Olshansky, Center for Constitutional Right's Deputy Director for Litigation. "How can we light the way to democracy for other countries when our Executive Branch officials themselves flaunt the law?" Center for Constitutional Rights 11/29/04
Here's Marie From Newsday:
No American president should have the absolute power to imprison people at will, even when the nation is at war.
That's the unfettered power President George W. Bush has claimed for himself in the war on terrorism. On his authority alone -- unchecked by courts or international convention -- 550 people from 40 nations captured in the Afghanistan war have been locked in a U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for three years. Two others -- American citizens -- have been held in military brigs almost as long, without criminal charges or access to family, lawyers or court.
Bush has labelled them "enemy combatants." With those two words, the president says he can lawfully move anyone he chooses beyond the reach of any legal authority other than his own. -- Newsday, Marie Cocco 11/16/04
And finally, this:
We are losing the war in Iraq.
There has been a steady increase in the assaults carried out by the insurgents against coalition forces. The attacks over the past year have risen from about twenty a day to approximately 120. We are an isolated and reviled nation. We are tyrants to others weaker than ourselves. We have lost sight of our democratic ideals. Thucydides wrote of Athens' expanding empire and how this empire led it to become a tyrant abroad and then a tyrant at home. The tyranny Athens imposed on others it finally imposed on itself. If we do not confront our hubris and the lies told to justify the killing and mask the destruction carried out in our name in Iraq, if we do not grasp the moral corrosiveness of empire and occupation, if we continue to allow force and violence to be our primary form of communication, we will not so much defeat dictators like Saddam Hussein as become them. Chris Hedges, New York Review of Books--Issue December 16, 2004)
Our Fearless Leader:
Text of Bush's news conference Dec 20, 2004:
"You know, I can understand why people - they're looking on your TV screen and seeing indiscriminate bombing, where thousands of innocent or hundreds of innocent Iraqis are getting killed, and they're saying whether or not we're able to achieve the objective."
"Change the channel"
- Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt's advice to Iraqis who see TV images of innocent civilians killed by coalition troops.
(NYT 12th April 2004)
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Murder in the Abstract is Still Iniquitous
By Jason Miller
Slow, agonizing death by asphyxiation is sweeping America. Covert assassins are in our midst, and many are blissfully unaware of their presence. These murderers rob their victims of their defenses by lulling them into complacency. Like the Sirens of mythology, they seductively lure their prey to its demise.
Something wicked this way comes….
Fear and ignorance are slowly choking the life out of reason and intellectualism in the United States. For years, the ruling Plutocracy has perpetuated social forces which obliterate the critical thinking capacities of the citizenry of the United States. Churches, schools, and corporations employ propaganda and offer immediate gratification through various means to crush the desire for independent thought. Four textbook manufacturers (which own 75% of the market), the entertainment industry, and the mainstream media, are the three most powerful propaganda channels for the Plutocrats. The casualties in this figurative genocide are the minds and souls of many Americans. I am not arguing that we are a brainless nation, because there are many Americans who possess high degrees of business and technological savvy. Many of the Plutocrats’ victims are more intelligent than those of us who have escaped their clutches. However, the Plutocracy has worked tirelessly to smother mental endeavors such as introspection, deep philosophical contemplation and the study of the humanities. "Forbidden knowledge" includes the darker side of US history, such as the extreme brutality of slavery and the genocide committed against Native Americans. Awareness of the atrocities committed by our rulers undermines the “Norman Rockwell concept” of America used to manipulate the masses into believing we live in a morally superior nation. America's Oligarchs have created a population which is very heavily loaded with people who possess the mental acuity to man the military industrial complex, but who lack the intellectual capacity to challenge their bondage. Those who are incapable or unwilling to think critically are unlikely to reject the manacles of economic and psychological servitude. Reason is dying slowly, and there are still significant numbers who resist the alluring package offered by our rulers. However, emotionally driven, shallow means of existence are slowly suffocating rigorous study, debate, and thoughtful deliberation in the United States. While the victim is an abstract, the Plutocrats are still committing a heinous act.
America, the Superficial (compliments of our Plutocracy)
Hostility against intellectualism is a hallmark of the United States. A nation run by imperialists and profiteers does not have time for pursuits that do not result in increased power or wealth. Why waste time studying Islam or learning the cultures of the people of the Middle East when we can employ our vast resources to underwrite brutal dictators (i.e. the Shah of Iran) or launch an outright invasion (i.e. in Iraq) to ensure that we maintain an iron grip on their precious oil? Rape, pillage, plunder, manipulation, and ignorance represent a much easier path than the rigors of diplomacy, reason, study, and compromise. From birth, the media inculcates us into a culture obsessed with being number one, dominating, winning, youth, physical beauty, and money. Why bother reading something deep and meaningful when cable offers 300 channels of eye and brain candy in which to immerse oneself? Why attempt to discern what is really going on in the world when Fox News is there to spoon-feed the information in a "fair and balanced" way?
Over the last several years, a group of rabid pit-bulls have emerged to virtually guarantee that "Yankee imperialism" will continue advancing the cause of the continued enrichment of the Plutocrats ruling our fictitious republic. Karl Rove, Bush's master propagandist whom Bush affectionately refers to as "Turd Blossom", rivals the genius of Joseph Goebbels in his ability to manipulate the masses. Preying on the average American's relative ignorance about other cultures and societies, Rove whipped the US populace into a frenzy of fear and lust for revenge after 9/11. Drawing on the momentum of anti-Muslim and Middle East sentiment, Rove, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Bush wove a web of intricate lies to convince the American public to become complicit in the invasion of a sovereign nation (which had no involvement in 9/11 and possessed no weapons of mass destruction). Thousands of lives and billions of dollars later, Iraq is in chaos and on the verge of a civil war. For the Plutocrats and Neocons, it has been a small price to pay for furthering their version of capitalism, which Bush calls "freedom and liberty". The reality is that America’s version of “freedom and liberty” enslaves people and ensures that the vast majority of the wealth remains in the hands of the few.
Make them pariahs before they expose us!
Americans who do have the misfortune to delight in intellectual pursuits that do not result in technological advance, increased military might, perpetuation of the "immediate gratification" entertainment industry, or financial gain are viewed as pariahs. In the US, there is little or no virtue in attaining knowledge of the humanities. In fact, awareness of history (beyond the white-washed version provided by textbooks), other cultures, literature, world events, and philosophy actually poses a grave threat to the Plutocrats and Neocons. A critical thinking person with knowledge of the dark history of the United States government, and awareness of the fact that not all Muslims are American-hating terrorists, might actually question the wisdom of the war in Iraq, thus jeopardizing the prosperity of the military industrial complex. Money flows to the coffers of those who marginalize and ridicule "fuzzy-minded liberal eggheads" like Adlai Stevenson or Jimmy Carter.
As evidenced by the example of Adlai Stevenson, a noted intellectual who lost the Electoral College vote 442 to 89 in the 1952 presidential election, many citizens of the United States view those noted for critical thinking with suspicion and disdain. As an individual who thirsts for knowledge on many subjects, reads voraciously, articulates relatively well in two languages, thinks critically, and has a respectable IQ, I grew up feeling like a pariah. Lacking athletic ability, mechanical aptitude, or the desire to be involved with the "in crowd", I spent most of my time studying and interacting with my circle of friends who shared my common interests. Throughout most of my childhood and teen years, I felt shunned. I endured mockery and exclusion because of my qualities and pursuits. Keeping my nose to the grindstone, I achieved Valedictorian of my high school class of 320 and three relatively successful years of liberal arts study at a state university. After years of existential angst stemming from my "flawed nature", I quit school and intentionally attempted to extinguish the intellectual aspects of my being. For six years, I chose to work in menial, low-paying jobs which required little or no education. I intentionally watered down my vocabulary. I stopped reading and studying for pleasure. I adopted ignorant, close-minded viewpoints that included racial, gender, and sexual orientation discrimination. In the process, I reached rock bottom spiritually, intellectually, and financially, and lived on the under-belly of society for two years. While I take responsibility for making these choices, I am using myself as an illustration to demonstrate how powerful the anti-intellectual forces are in American society. About twelve years ago, a serendipitous encounter with the most important mentor in my life started me on my steady journey to once again embrace my true nature. I have returned to valuing critical thinking, the search for knowledge, compassion, the pursuit of social justice, non-violent means of resolving conflict, intellectual freedom, and openness to change. While rejecting my true self was emotionally agonizing, it was a beneficial journey. Along that path, I learned a healthy humility, an understanding of my strengths and limitations, an appreciation for those with different strengths and limitations, and an appreciation for the spiritual side of my existence. Best of all, I have become the antithesis of what our Plutocrat and Neocon rulers desire in their obedient subjects, and I have devoted a great deal of my time and energy to encourage and inspire others to break their psychological and economic chains.
In the Eye of the Storm
Living in Kansas, the epicenter of America's rapid acceleration toward social conservatism and fundamentalism (which reject intellectual endeavors as a threat to their dogma), gives me a first-hand perspective of the depth of the problem. While conducting Bush's self-proclaimed "crusade" (note his ignorant and highly inflammatory choice of words) against the fundamentalist Islamic world, the Neocons are facilitating the intensification of anti-intellectualism here in the United States. Various factions within the Religious Right have worked their tentacles into the highest levels of our government. Bill Frist, Tom Delay, and Sam Brownback are but a few of our leaders who faithfully execute the Religious Right's agenda, which includes a dangerous nationalism analogous to that which emerged in Germany in the 1930's, government-sponsored discrimination against homosexuals, a potentially never-ending war on "terrorism", destruction of the wall of separation between church and state, and an attack on science and reason (which threatens to plunge the United States into a pre-Enlightenment theocracy).
Yes, Kansas is at the heart of this maelstrom threatening to swallow reason and intellect like helpless dinghies on a tempestuous sea. Phill Kline, our attorney general, believes he has the right to view private medical records of 90 women who had abortions. Numerous members of the socially conservative dominated Kansas State Legislature openly challenged the authority of the Kansas Supreme Court recently when justices unanimously ordered the legislature to provide more funding for public schools. Social conservatives on the Kansas State School Board are rewriting state science standards in a way that will open the door for introduction of Intelligent Design (a disguised version of Creationism) into the public school curriculum. After wasting $17,000.00 of taxpayers' money on farcical hearings to determine the validity of Evolution, the board is determined to bring religion into the classroom while attacking a theory which has withstood years of scientific scrutiny and is supported by significant amounts of evidence. In a newsletter to constituents, paid for by taxpayers, board member Connie Morris went so far as to write:
"It is our goal to write the standards in such a way that clearly gives educators the right AND responsibility to present the criticism of Darwinism alongside the age-old fairy tale of evolution,"
Yes, the United States has the moral and intellectual superiority to enlighten the “backward” denizens of the Middle East. How long will it be before Bush appoints Morris as a science advisor in the reconstruction of Iraq's educational system?
Things were simply not progressing quickly enough to suit the Neocons
While the United States has a history of covert suppression of intellectual freedom through various means, the Bush administration has accelerated the process and heightened the intensity. While America produces 25% of greenhouse gasses, the Bush administration has used pseudo-science to "disprove" the commonly accepted scientific notion of the Greenhouse Effect, thus enabling them to protect "Big Oil's" business interests by keeping the US out of the Kyoto Treaty. Refusing to provide a reasonable level of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research has significantly stifled American advances in this critical area of medical research. As a result of social conservatives' blind allegiance to the "preservation of life at all costs", hundreds of thousands of unused embryos at fertility clinics will be discarded rather than used for research with incredible potential to alleviate human suffering from diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. No Child Left Behind has left teachers behind as they have little recourse but to teach their students with the goal of succeeding on a standardized test, which represents a very shallow educational goal. It leaves little room for nurturing innate curiosity and fostering independent thinking. Perhaps the sickest joke behind this piece of legislation was over-burdening the teachers with requirements without providing them the necessary funding to fulfill the demands. For those who still believe the United States holds the edge in technology, consider that China graduated 325,000 engineers last year. The US graduated about a fifth that number. India graduated 40,000 computer science majors last year. While American citizens argue over Evolution, embryos destined for destruction anyway, and sustaining lives of those who have no hope of recovering quality of life, the rest of the world will pass us by like we are standing still. Plutocrat and Neocon behaviors such as continued consumption of the world's resources like obscene gluttons, willfully poisoning the environment, perpetuating an imperialistic agenda, and choosing profound ignorance about the rest of the world will continue to breed hatred and terrorism against the United States.
With the advent of television, America's rulers found a near perfect medium to purvey their mind-numbing messages, and further demonize intellectualism. Advertisers bombard the minds of Americans with seductive images and false claims. Mainstream news provides a corporate- censored, watered-down view of domestic and world events. Judge Judy and Jerry Springer celebrate and promote the vulgar in human relations and interactions. Sex, sensationalism, and violence captivate the masses to stay glued to their televisions, giving the Plutocrats a direct pipeline to the minds of their subjects. Thankfully, their recent bid to pull the plug on public television appears to have failed. Big Bird and Front Line have survived the chopping block, for now.
What can we do?
What can one do in the face of the immense wealth and power of the Plutocrats? How can one subvert their intense effort to convert Americans into servile, obedient subjects willing to perpetuate the Neocons’ avaricious, hateful agenda (which threatens the very survival of the human race)? Each person needs to find their own means of joining the non-violent movement to reject the Plutocrat and Neocon rule. My wife and I boycott Wal-Mart and other corporate entities that are destroying the American economy. We live frugally, and do not incur debt beyond what is necessary. We recycle. We teach our child together, and my two children, to think critically and to question authority to a healthy degree. I have chosen to join and participate with Amnesty International, the ACLU, and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. When I am not working or parenting, I write informative, persuasive essays. I maintain my blog, Thomas Paine's Corner, at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/, which promotes intellectual freedom, human rights, and civil liberties. I work with a project called Worldwide Renaissance (http://www.worldwiderenaissance.com/mainstuff/mainportalpage.asp?Level=Main) which promotes social justice. I am fully prepared to engage in civil disobedience when the time comes. If our corrupt leaders ask me to participate directly in one of their imperialistic endeavors, I will refuse. If the flag desecration amendment passes, I intend to publicly burn a flag, not as an affront to the heroic efforts of genuine American heroes or sincerely decent Americans, but as a stand for the First Amendment, and as a symbolic destruction of the twisted nationalism which the Neocons have brought the Stars and Stripes to represent.
I hope you find your way! The cause needs you!
Slow, agonizing death by asphyxiation is sweeping America. Covert assassins are in our midst, and many are blissfully unaware of their presence. These murderers rob their victims of their defenses by lulling them into complacency. Like the Sirens of mythology, they seductively lure their prey to its demise.
Something wicked this way comes….
Fear and ignorance are slowly choking the life out of reason and intellectualism in the United States. For years, the ruling Plutocracy has perpetuated social forces which obliterate the critical thinking capacities of the citizenry of the United States. Churches, schools, and corporations employ propaganda and offer immediate gratification through various means to crush the desire for independent thought. Four textbook manufacturers (which own 75% of the market), the entertainment industry, and the mainstream media, are the three most powerful propaganda channels for the Plutocrats. The casualties in this figurative genocide are the minds and souls of many Americans. I am not arguing that we are a brainless nation, because there are many Americans who possess high degrees of business and technological savvy. Many of the Plutocrats’ victims are more intelligent than those of us who have escaped their clutches. However, the Plutocracy has worked tirelessly to smother mental endeavors such as introspection, deep philosophical contemplation and the study of the humanities. "Forbidden knowledge" includes the darker side of US history, such as the extreme brutality of slavery and the genocide committed against Native Americans. Awareness of the atrocities committed by our rulers undermines the “Norman Rockwell concept” of America used to manipulate the masses into believing we live in a morally superior nation. America's Oligarchs have created a population which is very heavily loaded with people who possess the mental acuity to man the military industrial complex, but who lack the intellectual capacity to challenge their bondage. Those who are incapable or unwilling to think critically are unlikely to reject the manacles of economic and psychological servitude. Reason is dying slowly, and there are still significant numbers who resist the alluring package offered by our rulers. However, emotionally driven, shallow means of existence are slowly suffocating rigorous study, debate, and thoughtful deliberation in the United States. While the victim is an abstract, the Plutocrats are still committing a heinous act.
America, the Superficial (compliments of our Plutocracy)
Hostility against intellectualism is a hallmark of the United States. A nation run by imperialists and profiteers does not have time for pursuits that do not result in increased power or wealth. Why waste time studying Islam or learning the cultures of the people of the Middle East when we can employ our vast resources to underwrite brutal dictators (i.e. the Shah of Iran) or launch an outright invasion (i.e. in Iraq) to ensure that we maintain an iron grip on their precious oil? Rape, pillage, plunder, manipulation, and ignorance represent a much easier path than the rigors of diplomacy, reason, study, and compromise. From birth, the media inculcates us into a culture obsessed with being number one, dominating, winning, youth, physical beauty, and money. Why bother reading something deep and meaningful when cable offers 300 channels of eye and brain candy in which to immerse oneself? Why attempt to discern what is really going on in the world when Fox News is there to spoon-feed the information in a "fair and balanced" way?
Over the last several years, a group of rabid pit-bulls have emerged to virtually guarantee that "Yankee imperialism" will continue advancing the cause of the continued enrichment of the Plutocrats ruling our fictitious republic. Karl Rove, Bush's master propagandist whom Bush affectionately refers to as "Turd Blossom", rivals the genius of Joseph Goebbels in his ability to manipulate the masses. Preying on the average American's relative ignorance about other cultures and societies, Rove whipped the US populace into a frenzy of fear and lust for revenge after 9/11. Drawing on the momentum of anti-Muslim and Middle East sentiment, Rove, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Bush wove a web of intricate lies to convince the American public to become complicit in the invasion of a sovereign nation (which had no involvement in 9/11 and possessed no weapons of mass destruction). Thousands of lives and billions of dollars later, Iraq is in chaos and on the verge of a civil war. For the Plutocrats and Neocons, it has been a small price to pay for furthering their version of capitalism, which Bush calls "freedom and liberty". The reality is that America’s version of “freedom and liberty” enslaves people and ensures that the vast majority of the wealth remains in the hands of the few.
Make them pariahs before they expose us!
Americans who do have the misfortune to delight in intellectual pursuits that do not result in technological advance, increased military might, perpetuation of the "immediate gratification" entertainment industry, or financial gain are viewed as pariahs. In the US, there is little or no virtue in attaining knowledge of the humanities. In fact, awareness of history (beyond the white-washed version provided by textbooks), other cultures, literature, world events, and philosophy actually poses a grave threat to the Plutocrats and Neocons. A critical thinking person with knowledge of the dark history of the United States government, and awareness of the fact that not all Muslims are American-hating terrorists, might actually question the wisdom of the war in Iraq, thus jeopardizing the prosperity of the military industrial complex. Money flows to the coffers of those who marginalize and ridicule "fuzzy-minded liberal eggheads" like Adlai Stevenson or Jimmy Carter.
As evidenced by the example of Adlai Stevenson, a noted intellectual who lost the Electoral College vote 442 to 89 in the 1952 presidential election, many citizens of the United States view those noted for critical thinking with suspicion and disdain. As an individual who thirsts for knowledge on many subjects, reads voraciously, articulates relatively well in two languages, thinks critically, and has a respectable IQ, I grew up feeling like a pariah. Lacking athletic ability, mechanical aptitude, or the desire to be involved with the "in crowd", I spent most of my time studying and interacting with my circle of friends who shared my common interests. Throughout most of my childhood and teen years, I felt shunned. I endured mockery and exclusion because of my qualities and pursuits. Keeping my nose to the grindstone, I achieved Valedictorian of my high school class of 320 and three relatively successful years of liberal arts study at a state university. After years of existential angst stemming from my "flawed nature", I quit school and intentionally attempted to extinguish the intellectual aspects of my being. For six years, I chose to work in menial, low-paying jobs which required little or no education. I intentionally watered down my vocabulary. I stopped reading and studying for pleasure. I adopted ignorant, close-minded viewpoints that included racial, gender, and sexual orientation discrimination. In the process, I reached rock bottom spiritually, intellectually, and financially, and lived on the under-belly of society for two years. While I take responsibility for making these choices, I am using myself as an illustration to demonstrate how powerful the anti-intellectual forces are in American society. About twelve years ago, a serendipitous encounter with the most important mentor in my life started me on my steady journey to once again embrace my true nature. I have returned to valuing critical thinking, the search for knowledge, compassion, the pursuit of social justice, non-violent means of resolving conflict, intellectual freedom, and openness to change. While rejecting my true self was emotionally agonizing, it was a beneficial journey. Along that path, I learned a healthy humility, an understanding of my strengths and limitations, an appreciation for those with different strengths and limitations, and an appreciation for the spiritual side of my existence. Best of all, I have become the antithesis of what our Plutocrat and Neocon rulers desire in their obedient subjects, and I have devoted a great deal of my time and energy to encourage and inspire others to break their psychological and economic chains.
In the Eye of the Storm
Living in Kansas, the epicenter of America's rapid acceleration toward social conservatism and fundamentalism (which reject intellectual endeavors as a threat to their dogma), gives me a first-hand perspective of the depth of the problem. While conducting Bush's self-proclaimed "crusade" (note his ignorant and highly inflammatory choice of words) against the fundamentalist Islamic world, the Neocons are facilitating the intensification of anti-intellectualism here in the United States. Various factions within the Religious Right have worked their tentacles into the highest levels of our government. Bill Frist, Tom Delay, and Sam Brownback are but a few of our leaders who faithfully execute the Religious Right's agenda, which includes a dangerous nationalism analogous to that which emerged in Germany in the 1930's, government-sponsored discrimination against homosexuals, a potentially never-ending war on "terrorism", destruction of the wall of separation between church and state, and an attack on science and reason (which threatens to plunge the United States into a pre-Enlightenment theocracy).
Yes, Kansas is at the heart of this maelstrom threatening to swallow reason and intellect like helpless dinghies on a tempestuous sea. Phill Kline, our attorney general, believes he has the right to view private medical records of 90 women who had abortions. Numerous members of the socially conservative dominated Kansas State Legislature openly challenged the authority of the Kansas Supreme Court recently when justices unanimously ordered the legislature to provide more funding for public schools. Social conservatives on the Kansas State School Board are rewriting state science standards in a way that will open the door for introduction of Intelligent Design (a disguised version of Creationism) into the public school curriculum. After wasting $17,000.00 of taxpayers' money on farcical hearings to determine the validity of Evolution, the board is determined to bring religion into the classroom while attacking a theory which has withstood years of scientific scrutiny and is supported by significant amounts of evidence. In a newsletter to constituents, paid for by taxpayers, board member Connie Morris went so far as to write:
"It is our goal to write the standards in such a way that clearly gives educators the right AND responsibility to present the criticism of Darwinism alongside the age-old fairy tale of evolution,"
Yes, the United States has the moral and intellectual superiority to enlighten the “backward” denizens of the Middle East. How long will it be before Bush appoints Morris as a science advisor in the reconstruction of Iraq's educational system?
Things were simply not progressing quickly enough to suit the Neocons
While the United States has a history of covert suppression of intellectual freedom through various means, the Bush administration has accelerated the process and heightened the intensity. While America produces 25% of greenhouse gasses, the Bush administration has used pseudo-science to "disprove" the commonly accepted scientific notion of the Greenhouse Effect, thus enabling them to protect "Big Oil's" business interests by keeping the US out of the Kyoto Treaty. Refusing to provide a reasonable level of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research has significantly stifled American advances in this critical area of medical research. As a result of social conservatives' blind allegiance to the "preservation of life at all costs", hundreds of thousands of unused embryos at fertility clinics will be discarded rather than used for research with incredible potential to alleviate human suffering from diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. No Child Left Behind has left teachers behind as they have little recourse but to teach their students with the goal of succeeding on a standardized test, which represents a very shallow educational goal. It leaves little room for nurturing innate curiosity and fostering independent thinking. Perhaps the sickest joke behind this piece of legislation was over-burdening the teachers with requirements without providing them the necessary funding to fulfill the demands. For those who still believe the United States holds the edge in technology, consider that China graduated 325,000 engineers last year. The US graduated about a fifth that number. India graduated 40,000 computer science majors last year. While American citizens argue over Evolution, embryos destined for destruction anyway, and sustaining lives of those who have no hope of recovering quality of life, the rest of the world will pass us by like we are standing still. Plutocrat and Neocon behaviors such as continued consumption of the world's resources like obscene gluttons, willfully poisoning the environment, perpetuating an imperialistic agenda, and choosing profound ignorance about the rest of the world will continue to breed hatred and terrorism against the United States.
With the advent of television, America's rulers found a near perfect medium to purvey their mind-numbing messages, and further demonize intellectualism. Advertisers bombard the minds of Americans with seductive images and false claims. Mainstream news provides a corporate- censored, watered-down view of domestic and world events. Judge Judy and Jerry Springer celebrate and promote the vulgar in human relations and interactions. Sex, sensationalism, and violence captivate the masses to stay glued to their televisions, giving the Plutocrats a direct pipeline to the minds of their subjects. Thankfully, their recent bid to pull the plug on public television appears to have failed. Big Bird and Front Line have survived the chopping block, for now.
What can we do?
What can one do in the face of the immense wealth and power of the Plutocrats? How can one subvert their intense effort to convert Americans into servile, obedient subjects willing to perpetuate the Neocons’ avaricious, hateful agenda (which threatens the very survival of the human race)? Each person needs to find their own means of joining the non-violent movement to reject the Plutocrat and Neocon rule. My wife and I boycott Wal-Mart and other corporate entities that are destroying the American economy. We live frugally, and do not incur debt beyond what is necessary. We recycle. We teach our child together, and my two children, to think critically and to question authority to a healthy degree. I have chosen to join and participate with Amnesty International, the ACLU, and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. When I am not working or parenting, I write informative, persuasive essays. I maintain my blog, Thomas Paine's Corner, at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/, which promotes intellectual freedom, human rights, and civil liberties. I work with a project called Worldwide Renaissance (http://www.worldwiderenaissance.com/mainstuff/mainportalpage.asp?Level=Main) which promotes social justice. I am fully prepared to engage in civil disobedience when the time comes. If our corrupt leaders ask me to participate directly in one of their imperialistic endeavors, I will refuse. If the flag desecration amendment passes, I intend to publicly burn a flag, not as an affront to the heroic efforts of genuine American heroes or sincerely decent Americans, but as a stand for the First Amendment, and as a symbolic destruction of the twisted nationalism which the Neocons have brought the Stars and Stripes to represent.
I hope you find your way! The cause needs you!
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